Ignatian spirituality

A new edition of The Way Spirituality Journal is availableMEANING IN LIGHT AND DARKNESSContentsRob Culhane - Living with Anxiety, Medication and PrayerIt is perhaps not surprising that drugs prescribed to mitigate the effects of anxiety will affect the life of prayer. It is less clear, however, what will actually happen in practice. In a frank and open article, Rob Culhane, an Anglican priest working in Australia, describes how his own ministry and spirituality were influenced by the...

God continues to call young people today to discover that it is possible to live a consecrated life. This year 42 young people knocked on the doors of ten Jesuit novitiates in Europe.Each one of them has followed a different journey, some have known the Society of Jesus since childhood in Jesuit schools and churches, others have collaborated with social and pastoral works, and others have simply approached the Society in the different provinces from their web pages.However, all of them have in...

The first of September was the World day of Prayer for Creation. From September 1st to October 4th, Christians from around the world are uniting to pray for creation.Pope Francis says in Laudato Si: "we are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.”Jesuit Missions strives to put care of creation at the forefront of all that we do. As the changing climate is causing more climate...

The Irish Jesuits organised a ‘Faith in the Modern World’ retreat for young people from all over Europe in preparation for the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland at Manresa Jesuit Centre of Spirituality, Dublin from 20 to 26 August 2018.The initiative helped the retreatants to discern how to follow the call to live a Christ-like life in an Ignatian way and in line with the papacy.Along with Irish Jesuits, presenters came from St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in...

The spirituality centre at the cave of St Ignatius at Manresa in Spain is organising its ninth annual "Ignatian immersion course".This course, which is conducted in English, includes an 8-day individually-guided retreat. Participants will study the Autobiography and the Deliberation of the First Fathers, among other texts, and end by considering ways in which Ignatian spirituality can be more fully integrated into their own everyday lives and missions.Further details, and how to apply, can be...

"Living our GIFT...sharing our JOY"The Grace"We desire deeper understanding and commitment in living the gift of Christian Life Community in the world today"Inspired by St Ignatius Loyola and his Spiritual Exercises, CLC is a lay organisation, a world community of small groups of 4-10 people, helping members from all walks of life to integrate prayer and action in daily life, to respond more fully to God's loving desire for them. Learn more about CLC here or get in contact via email: info@...

Over the past few months the Jesuits in Britain have been recruiting a team of three coordinators to support Fr Simon Bishop SJ (pictured above with the team) in developing the work of Ignatian spirituality in the UK.The three new spirituality coordinators met in Birmingham at the weekend for their first planning meeting. A focus of this first meeting was helping to implement the vision of the new provincial, Fr Damian Howard SJ. Working with Fr Simon Bishop SJ...

Fr General, Arturo Sosa SJ, has sent a letter to Jesuits and their partners in mission around the world, addressing ‘Discernment in Common’. Discernment, in the Ignatian tradition, is understood as seeking and finding the will of God, especially in important decisions. It is strongly connected to what is known as ‘the movement of spirits’ in Ignatian spirituality. The habit of regularly reflecting on these movements, the ‘examen’, enables people to understand what is moving them...

This year’s annual meeting of European delegates to the social apostolate has just taken place in Bilbao. Nine different provinces were represented, including Paul Chitnis from Jesuit Missions representing Britain. The theme of the meeting was conversion, presented as being a continuous process. The challenge in the field of the social apostolate is in getting many inspiring initiatives to work together more. A constant call to conversion is in fostering collaboration within...

It was an interesting experience for me to go to the theatre and find an intelligent and non-cliched exploration of contemporary mystical experience. Christopher Shinn’s ‘Against’, playing at the Almeida Theatre in north London, is a fascinating and absorbing study of millennial confusion. Most engrossingly from an Ignatian perspective, a fundamental theme is what happens when someone powerful and influential feels that God is speaking to them in the midst of that confusion. This is a...